“One of the most unusual and strangely charming films to grace Hot Docs in years.”
“A glorious collision of documentary cinema, automotive carnage, and song and dance numbers … Combines elements of Greek tragedy, Kubrickian lushness, and the archetypal Hero’s Journey to reveal the true cost of following one’s muse … Imbued with the very things it examines – ambition, glory, and finally, the desire for greatness”
4.5/5 Stars / “A film that takes two totally disparate cultural moments in Canadian history and makes them equally entertaining, enthralling and thought provoking … A captivating look at the limits of creativity and those who choose to fly right past them.”
“It’s hard to know whose ambition is most audacious / outrageous: Canadian stuntman Ken Carter’s, or composer and double bassist Mark Haney’s, or director John Bolton’s … Part documentary, part re-enactment, part music video, the film is a bizarre, wild, amazing ride.”
“The hippest Canadian doc in years … An operatic ode to creative risk-taking that throws caution to the wind.”
5/5 Stars / NNNNN /“Part long-form music video, part archival documentary, it’s experimental and conventional at the same time: a concept movie about a concept album. It’s delightful.”
“John Bolton brings the WTF factor to Hot Docs with the bizarre, ambitious, and ridiculously entertaining Aim For The Roses … Stunning … Comparisons to Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act Of Killing are both inevitable and warranted for the film’s ingeniously playful approach to documentary form, but there has never been a documentary quite like Aim For The Roses … Fueled by an electrifying musical score, and possibly the first dramatic chorus ever in a documentary … The wildest, craziest, and smartest doc in years.”
“Maybe the most peculiar film to premiere at Hot Docs this year … Inspired lunacy … Has to be seen and heard and experienced to be believed … A multi-level meta-musical about one man’s passion that becomes another man’s pet project.”
“Stretches the limits of documentary storytelling … There is a poetic absurdity at the heart of John Bolton’s new ‘musical docudrama’ that is nicely summed up by its title: it implies something beautiful and delicate, but the reality is wilder and more dangerous.”
Mark Haney 